Rezoning Highway 29 for Affordable Housing

[Paul Maguire]

IT is not surprise that American Canyon is looking desperately for land to build more affordable housing. Why? Because American Canyon Officials committed to take on the burden of upvalley affordable housing in a Memo of Understanding- the only problem is, that we dont have anyplace to put most of it.

In case you have no idea whats going on around here, land prices are through the roof- the only people that dont seem to know that, are city officials- who, sell land for dirt cheap, make deals for swaps, all of course, in CLOSED SESSION. ANd who negotiates these deals? Realtors, Brokers, NO- of course not, rather, inexperienced lay people who for the most part, dont know a damn thing about real estate and real estate values.

SOme say I embaressed myself when I stood up at a city council meeting as teh city was about to give away a piece of dirt for "affordable housing". This is a city asset, by the way, owned by the taxpayers. They said it was worth 500k- and I strongly disagreed- they claimed that they had a valid appraisal- which I later found out was dated, and I knew something was wrong when I heard the size of the land and the price.

But what do I know? I only teach real estate investing, own property all over, have actually done land deals , some as close as mini drive, - but no, they all claimed that the land was deed restricted etc etc etc-----so I said, ok, I withdraw my objection- only to later find out that the appraisle was so old, that is was no longer valid( over 90 -180- days in most cases, this one was years old as I hear it).

THe bottom line is the taxpayers potentially got ripped off, and I said we should have two appraisals on ALL property sold in the city, independant appraisals, so we are getting fair value. But I lost that argument, even though I still today believe the city continues to make close session land deals with city owned property that are NOT in the best interest of the taxpayers by individuals representing the city who are NOT licensed real estate agents nor have access to true values- Why wont the city use a Gary Van Dam, or a William Kampton , two brokers who sell and have sold land here in American Canyon, rather than the public works director, teh former city manager, or the fire chief. I am sure there are well intentioned, but certainly NOT the best people to represent the interest of hte TAXPAYERS who own these parcels to begin with.

Now here comes the city saying well, we dont have any land to put affordable housing- something I said TIME AND TIME AGAIN in the last election- that we are going to need more land in the future and we dont have any- and to fix this problem we are going to put more affordable housing and apartments on the highway 29 corridor!! YOu gotta be kidding me??? NO- IM NOT KIDDING YOU!

Ask Tim Long who I was speaking with hte other day, and all of a sudden, he tells me the city would like to see "apartments or housing here" - Tims land is north of ARCO and south of the new hotel- ITS a commercial piece- on a corner, where a light is to be installed- on 29 which likely will be 6 lanes in the future.....This is GOOD PLANNING????

It is so obvious that we are COPING with problems rather than PLANNING and SOLVING them- or making commitments we cannot keep- like this MOU on affordable housing.

And when a project comes forward we could actually use, like the condo project on the corner of 29/ac road, on a piece of dirt with all kinds of challenges, a project from Standard Pacific, a builder that will actually DO THE PROJECT- unlike so many of these ya-hoos that get land entitled here and then try to sell it( like the 35 Units mobile homes(no prefabricated homes) or whatever the heck they are-still not built, entitled project was listed for sale for 4 Million on loopnet once it got entitled, and the dirt still sits----

anyway, the city has trouble because they dont have enough affordable homes anymore- cant meet the state requirements----so lets put apartments alll along 29- great idea---instead of getting the land deal done with the county, annexing in parcels for lower and moderate income housing, working with owner north of town- getting OAT HILL DONE, which from what I have seen and heard, is moving S-L-O-W-L-Y....very slowly.....

Or renegotiate the MOU if we need to- The bottom line is one mess after another- foul water, failing pipes, inadequate affordable housing, lack of planning, poor infrastructure, failing or inadequate pumps, pot holes, good staff quiting, overpaid executives, bloated budgets, high legal costs with litigation, land sold undervalue, a pension system we cannot afford at all, general plan problems, and on and on.

[juliob]

Paul, you post is very informative. I agree with you that the city council should make all plans and decisions transparent instead of behind closed doors. In addition, there should be two independent appraisals on all public land transactions because appraisals are very subjective.